Kevin Fowler, Bring It On

Note: The following artist performs Saturday or Sunday during the Big State Festival at Texas World Speedway, 17529 State Highway 6, College Station. Besides music, events include stock-car racing, a barbecue cook-off, mechanical bull riding, camping and more. Visit www.bigstatefestival.com or call 512-888-7469 for tickets and/or further information.

Kevin Fowler: Stirrin' up a ruckus.

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First off, if you're the sort of country fan who prefers tear-in-my-beer laments to yee-haw lyrics like "We're still stirrin' up a ruckus, lightnin' ain't a-struck us," best move on. Kevin Fowler likes to party and doesn't care who knows it. In fact, it's genetic: "I was born with a shot glass in my hand," he sings on Bring It On opener "Long Line of Losers." Perhaps that's for the best — his only real misstep here is "Best Mistake I Ever Made," a steel-drenched ballad detailing how a lost weekend in Vegas led to marriage and fatherhood: "Just because we didn't mean to do it don't mean that it ain't right." That's all very nice, but somehow the uptempo ball-and-chain kiss-off "What's Your Point?" and divorce-ducking "Cheaper to Keep Her" feel a little more honest. Hell, even his song about a crippling hangover ("I Pulled a Hank Last Night") is dance-on-the-bar raucous. Fowler may be a family man in real life, but he and Bring It On are at their best on Cajun-spiced, beer-soaked male-bonding escapades like "Ain't Dead Yet," "Let's Start Livin'" and George Jones duet "Me and the Boys." Very few Van Halen fans much cared to hear about David Lee Roth's domestic side, either.